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    <title>Building&nbsp;a&nbsp;Shared Development Framework</title>
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      <h2 class="zTitleChapter"><a name="138074">Building&nbsp;a&nbsp;Shared Development Framework </a></h2>
      <p class="b_Body"><a name="281180">Previous </a>sections describe how to create and use data sources and data sets and lay out and format report items. A single report developer with a requirement for only a few reports can use these approaches effectively. For a larger project, either one with more developers or one that requires more reports, many designs need to use the same elements or layouts.</p>
      <p class="b1i_Bullet1-intro"><a name="281190">To support creating and maintaining standard formats, building reports in collaboration with other report developers, and avoiding error-prone, repetitious design tasks, BIRT uses the following file types:</a></p>
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              <div class="b1_002b_Bullet1WPara_inner"><a name="145212">A library</a></div>
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      <div class="N_i-_Indent1LessLead"><a name="264917">The main purpose of a library is to provide developers of report designs with a shared repository of predesigned report elements and styles. The file-name extension for a library file is .rptlibrary. BIRT locates libraries in the resource folder.</a></div>
      <div class="N_i_Indent1"><a name="264904">A library is a dynamic component of a report design. When a library developer makes changes to a library, the report design synchronizes itself with the changed library. In this way, changes propagate easily within a suite of report designs.</a></div>
      <div class="N_i_Indent1"><a name="248555">A library stores customized report elements, such as data sources, visual report items, styles, and master pages. Use a library in a report design to access the customized elements. You can use multiple libraries in a single report design. By using multiple libraries, you can separate the styles and functionality that different projects or processes need.</a></div>
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              <div class="b1_002b_Bullet1WPara_inner"><a name="145198">A template</a></div>
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      <div class="N_i-_Indent1LessLead"><a name="264970">The main purpose of a template is to provide a standard start position for a new report design. As such, the structure of a template file is identical to the structure of a report design file. The file-name extension for a template file is .rpttemplate. BIRT locates templates in the template folder.</a></div>
      <div class="N_i_Indent1"><a name="260962">A template is a static framework on which to build a new report design. A report design derived from a template modifies a copy of that template. For this reason, a report design can derive from only one template. Because report designs use copies of the template, when a template developer changes a template, report designs based on that template do not automatically reflect those changes.</a></div>
      <div class="N_i_Indent1"><a name="261329">A template provides a structure for a standard report layout. A template can contain visual report items that appear in the report’s layout, data sources and data sets, and master page layouts. A template uses libraries in the same way that a report design does. BIRT Report Designer provides a set of standard templates, such as Simple Listing and Grouped Listing report templates.</a></div>
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              <div class="b1_002b_Bullet1WPara_inner"><a name="209830">A CSS file</a></div>
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      <div class="N_i-_Indent1LessLead"><a name="248593">This type of file provides styles for formatting items in a report, similar to the formatting of items on a web page.</a></div>
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